Sometimes we wish we could have all the answers to all of our questions. (Right now.) Maybe just a few of our questions, the ones that stick in our minds, that we worry at and turn over and over without feeling any more settled.

Sometimes we feel so sure that nothing can ever upend our testimony or our conviction, and then something happens that throws us into turmoil. Sometimes another person attacks our beliefs with an objection that we don’t have an answer for, except faith in a living prophet.

A brilliant and independent woman named Anne Osborn (later Poelman), a medical student who became a doctor, professor, and author of medical textbooks, was surprised to find herself gaining a testimony of the restored gospel. Some of her friends were appalled; how could she choose to become part of what they viewed possibly as a cult, certainly as a step down for a woman of such accomplishment?

She wrote of what a wise friend told her, after she had weathered some of those bumps in the road, holding fast to the witness she had acted upon in being baptized. He drew her attention to the story of Simeon in Luke, chapter 2, who had been told that he would not die before he saw the Lord’s Christ. He asked her, when did this message come to him? The answer is that we don’t know, the scripture doesn’t say.

All we really know is that he had it revealed to him that he would see that day. He was directed to the temple. “Now let thy servant depart in peace,” he said, when the day came. He held the child and prophesied. The promise to him was fulfilled, and he knew by the Spirit of God that this infant was the Son of God, the promised Messiah. Two things are evident: that he could know, and that he could see in this newborn child the promise of ages. First, that the prophecy near at hand was fulfilled, his personal promise, and then that those promises which arose from it would come to pass as well. He was filled with faith and light.

Sister Osborn’s friend told her that there would be questions which would arise in her life in the Church that might not have ready answers. She might run into things which she could not understand, or with which she was inclined to disagree, based on her previous experience and assumptions. When that happened, he hoped that she would take Simeon’s example: trust, and wait on the Lord.

I found it a powerful example. It speaks to a universal experience—that of certainty and uncertainty.

Was he a younger man, bid to bide his time and be faithful? Was he already advanced in years, feeling himself failing, and praying to know God’s purposes, wondering how the prophecies would come to pass and how soon?

Did he watch those who came into the temple every day, and look, finding the answer to be “not yet’? I imagine that he did. Did he worry that he might falter at the wrong time and miss the day? Perhaps sometimes he did, but then renewed his determination to trust the assurance that had been given to him. He would see the promised Redeemer of Israel with his own eyes, and know him. He had had a long lifetime to gain his surety and smooth out his fears.

And the luminous recitation of this day in the temple where his faith was answered, and his sight was clear, gives us all a witness of the Savior’s calling. The Spirit speaks to us as well. Simeon waited with faith and trust.

There are issues which arise, prone to some contention. There are things we haven’t been given the answers to yet. Simeon didn’t live in an easy time, either. There was turmoil and contention on the very role of the promised Messiah, political or spiritual; the political turmoil overshadowed the spiritual comprehension and recognition of who Jesus was, at least to the supposed authorities and leaders. It was those who opened their hearts, who in many cases were persons without station, who knew he was the promised Son of God. They saw his light and love, and gave their hearts and faith. That’s what we are asked to do too.

There are many ways to get deflected or detoured. There is only one way to walk in the light and Spirit, and that is to be faithful to our covenants and testimonies. If we put those first, the nonessential drops away, even though we might not reach that peace immediately.

I come back to Anne Osborn Poelman now and again; I quote her counsel when I teach, and echo her example of Simeon. She says, in telling her story:

Peace and serenity are the fruits of faithful obedience and trust. It actually is that simple.

(*The Simeon Solution, Anne Osborn Poelman: One Woman’s Spiritual Odyssey, Deseret Book, 1994)